Pottery and public settlements at the Inka road of Atacama desert (Loa river, northern Chile)

Th e prehistory of northern Chile has been developed by a descriptive archaeology that normally used pottery to reconstruct the agroceramic periods. Great attention has been paid to these items of cultural material unlike other elements of the past, such as big sites and well conserved artifacts of these desert zones (e.g., architecture, basketry, textiles, wooden, etc.). In this sense, pottery has been the main focus of the archaeology as a means to reconstruct the past. Therefore, according to the worldwide tendencies of pottery studies, we will show some methodological and interpretative guidelines in the treatment of this material. We particularity propose some basic concepts and a systematic analysis of the fragmentary debris (functional, behavioral and contextual), as it relates to the social and political dynamics of particular cultures. In a wider context we expect to study the ceramic materials and architecture of the Atacama region during its Late Period (AD 1450-1536) to archaeologically understand the social processes of the local peoples during the Inka domination in northern Chile.

Key words: pottery analysis, public architecture, Inka road, Tawantinsuyo, Alto Loa.